With the season one quarter over, Edmonton Oilers fans have some concerns, some worries, a bit of angst, and a number of questions about a team that almost won the Stanley Cup last June in Florida.
Here’s a sampling of questions submitted by readers.
Q: How big was the loss of Philip Broberg? (CHRISMG2020)
A: BIG. Good business decision then and now with the squeezed cap which GM Stan Bowman inherited when he was hired in late July, but a bad hockey decision, with hindsight being 20-20.
Clearly, a large error, with how Broberg has been playing in St. Lous, derailed for a few weeks after a mild board entanglement with Mitch Marner hurt his knee. Broberg has nine points in 13 games, is plus five, and is averaging 20 minutes a game. In his return Saturday against Philly, he played 24 minutes alongside Justin Faulk.
The Blues’ offer sheet was two years at almost $4.6 million AAV, a major gulp for a young defenceman with 81 NHL games, and the Oilers didn’t want to pay him more than Evan Bouchard for this season if they matched the offer. All reasonable things to chew on but losing him has come back to bite the Oilers on the butt.
They spent five years developing Broberg, with admittedly middling results—in part because he was often used as a seventh D in an 11-7 line-up call—and let him go for a second-round 2025 draft pick, who might be on the team in 2029. Maybe they talked of moving some cap money around to keep him, but couldn’t rationalize it. All I know is this: as one long-time NHL scout said as he watched the Oilers earlier this season “We’re all looking for young top 4 D.”
Now, the Oilers, the oldest team in the league, will be trading for a D in March to play in the second pairing with Darnell Nurse. There’s a very good chance he’ll be making about the same money as Broberg, be older, and might not be any better, and they’ll be giving up assets to get Player X, maybe a first-rounder.
Bowman and CEO Jeff Jackson didn’t have the same allegiance to Broberg as the outgoing GM Ken Holland did, which Bowman acknowledges, so it was maybe easier to not match on this player Holland drafted Broberg in 2019 at No. 8.
But this screams for a mea culpa “on second thought…”
Q: Is Jeff Skinner salvageable with the Oilers? Or does he get moved? (Ed Helinski)
A: Hold on here. It’s awfully early to be writing off a guy with 361 goals, just 24 games into the season. But Skinner, signed as a second-line LW panacea for Leon Draisaitl on a low-risk, one-year $3 million free-agent signing in the wake of Buffalo buying him out, has been beaten out on the second line by Vasily Podkolzin.
He’s currently the 3LW with Adam Henrique. OK, because teams need top 9s and a third line with some offensive pop. He has not won over coach Kris Knoblauch like the worker bee, defensively sound Podkolzin, who has scored in three straight games after going 21 without a goal. And yes, give Bowman major props for the quiet Podkolzin trade in August. He’s young, fast, and has filled a hole with Dylan Holloway also gone to St. Louis.
Here’s the thing with Skinner, whose ice-time is 13:38, three fewer minutes a game than in Buffalo. He’s always scored—he has a career 11.1 shooting percentage although it’s 6.2 right now—but the well-worn book on him is he doesn’t have a complete game when he doesn’t have the puck. While plus/minus is far from the end-all, be-all he’s minus 9 in 24 games, the worst stat on the team by a fair bit. He’s minus 139 for his career even with those 361 goals, 286 of those even-strength.
As a former NHL winger told me the other day the problem he sees is Skinner likes to dangle/stickhandle a little too much in the offensive zone and that is counter-productive with Leon, who should be running the show.
Would they trade him at the deadline because he’s UFA?
Why? For another draft pick who is four years away?
Q: When is Bill Hunter going into the Hockey Hall of Fame? No Hunter, no Oilers, no Gretzky era, no McDavid era, no 5 Stanley Cups. Also, it should be embarrassing for the Edmonton Oilers to not have him in their own Hall of Fame. (Rick O’Donnell)
A: You are right that it was Wild Bill’s vision that got the Oilers into the World Hockey Association, finding Charles Allard as the main moneybags for the franchise. He was long gone before Gretzky arrived in 1978, of course. But, he got the team out of the Edmonton Gardens, and got them a spanking new rink that Pat Bowlen and Peter Batoni constructed. But, it’s a real long shot that he gets into the HHOF as a builder.
Now, the Oiler Wall of Fame. Yes, as one of the fortunate selectors the past three years, indeed he should be there someday, and maybe soon. To date, only players have been recognized (Ryan Smyth, Lee Fogolin, Doug Weight, Charlie Huddy, Craig MacTavish, Randy Gregg). There are many others qualified to join them on the Wall, including goalies. But it’s probably time to put in a coach (John Muckler?) or a scout (Barry Fraser?), a builder (Hunter?), a behind-the-scenes tireless worker (Barrie Stafford, Ken Lowe?) or, everybody’s favourite, Joey Moss.
Q: Is there any situation where the Oil can carry 13F and 7D? I feel there is no competition for a spot in the line-up. When guys know they are going in no matter how they’re playing we don’t get the best out of everyone every game. (Jason Uretsky).
Good observation, sir. We all know why the Oiler line-up is bare bones because they want to accrue cap space so they can have more money at the trade deadline to add a significant piece (top 4 D), probably with a high AAV. But, with normally just 12 F, they are just shuffling deck chairs, keeping an extra D (usually Travis Dermott).
Corey Perry has been more than holding his own (four goals, seven points) and offers with his intrinsic competitiveness and hockey smarts, but he is 40 in the spring, one of the four oldest players in the league. Would it hurt long-term if they sat him on the second of Oiler back-to-backs at his age to keep his legs fresh? No. But he’s played all 24 games.
More or less the same story with Derek Ryan, who turns 38 after Christmas.
Q: Any smoke to the talk about David Savard, RD to Edmonton? (Brandon)
A: Just a few puffs. In truth, the Oilers would rather have his Habs’ teammate Mike Matheson (with some salary retained, even if the price would be higher) because he’s a better puck-mover, can play both sides on D and he has another year on his contract ($4.875m AAV) after this one.
Savard ($3.5m AAV, UFA) is probably Plan C on a list of acquireables at the deadline, as a pure rental. I’m not sure he qualifies as top 4 D any longer on a contender. He’s game, for sure, and has a nasty side but people who see him play often back east wonder about his foot-speed at 34. Plus his CF% is 39.80, a healthy negative for shots attempted and shots given up when he’s on the ice.
Thanks for the questions.
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